Oct. 14, 2013

Richard Baird

Written by

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Richard Baird, a top adviser to Gov. Rick Snyder, testified in the Detroit bankruptcy case that he explored the idea of state legislation to help out low-income Detroit retirees who have their pensions slashed, according to a draft deposition transcript.

Baird, who has held the title transformation manager in the Snyder administration, testified in a deposition Thursday in the Detroit bankruptcy case that he asked Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr for data to help him analyze the possibility, but Orr never got back to him.

“I requested data on whether the data existed on the distribution by pension amount, numbers of pensioners and pension amount for the current roughly 20,000 pensioners,” Baird testified.

“He said it was a good question, and he’d get back to me,” Baird said. “But to the best of my recollection, he didn’t.”

Attorneys for Detroit unionized employees and retirees questioned Baird under oath in preparation for a trial this month before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes on whether Detroit was eligible to file for bankruptcy. The unions and retirees say the city was put into bankruptcy without good-faith negotiations so officials could slash city pensions in violation of state constitutional protections. The state and city deny that.

Baird said he was wondering if pension cuts could be focused more on higher-income pension earners so the impact on those with the smallest pensions would be minimized..

Though he never received the data, Baird testified, his anecdotal understanding was that most of the city of Detroit pensioners had pension income at the low end, so it would not be practical to make significant cuts to pension benefits without affecting the low-income earners.

Baird testified he also discussed the possibility of legislative help for those pensioners with Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon and with Dennis Muchmore, Snyder’s chief of staff.

“He said, I don’t know what the appetite for that would be but it’s a good question,” Baird testified of Muchmore.

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Snyder has said publicly there will be no state bailout for Detroit, which in July filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation’s history.

In the Legislature, “my understanding is that the appetite for a large-scale appropriation to Detroit was pretty low,” Baird testified.

“I didn’t have an opinion about whether or not there was an appetite for an incremental safety net for impacted pensioners were they to be impacted. I was simply asking the question.”

The idea never went anywhere, Baird testified.

Baird has been controversial because he has an office near Snyder in the state Romney Building and a government e-mail address, but is not a state employee. Baird’s $100,000 annual fee is paid from Snyder’s nonprofit fund, the New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify (NERD) Fund, which can accept unlimited, anonymous corporate donations.

Just as Snyder testified earlier in his deposition, Baird testified he doesn’t know who the fund’s donors are. He testified he also doesn’t know who manages it, or who is on its board of directors.

“I know who I submit the invoice to, and I know who signs the check,” Baird testified. “Outside of that, I don’t know anything else.”